Lee letter: Artwork for sale
Angola Warden Burl Cain said death row inmate Derrick Todd Lee has not profited from his notoriety in any way since he’s been in the prison, but a letter written by Lee and released Monday says otherwise.
In the handwritten letter signed by the inmate and dated Dec. 7, 2011, Lee names a price for artwork he wants to sell and tells a website’s co-founder how to wire him money.
Lee also tells serialkillersink.net co-founder Jessika Gein in the letter that he’s profited from his artwork on previous occasions.
“We can receive money also but it has to be sent by JPay.com … I have a few art pictures that I draw, they’re 9x12. I ask $20 each for them. I sell them from time to time to help buy the things I need in here. If you’re interested in any, or would like to try (to) sell any for me, please let me know,” Lee wrote in the letter.
Authorities at the Louisiana State Prison at Angola launched an investigation last week after two of Lee’s colored pencil drawings — two swans swimming in front of a sunset and a panda bear eating bamboo — appeared for sale on serialkillersink.net.
The site also posted the letter Lee wrote to Gein, but it was partially obscured by a death row envelope.
Inmates are allowed to mail their artwork to outside parties, but prison investigator Col. Bobby Achord said authorities have to determine whether Lee knew the items were going to be posted for sale online, and if he expected to profit from them.
“Our records show he hasn’t sold anything or profited,” Cain said on Friday. The warden did not return calls for comment on Monday.
Eric Gein, 42, the website’s owner, released the inmate’s letter Monday to respond to the warden’s claims that website co-founder Jessika Gein, who is also Eric Gein’s wife, flirted with Lee and duped him into sending his drawings to her.
Angola records show Lee received a Christmas card from Jessika Gein on Dec. 7, which he responded to on the same day.
She wired Lee $20 on Jan. 5, according to JPay.com records, shortly before Lee sent her his drawings.
“We hope that by providing The Advocate with the letter ... that we clear up the fact that we were not reaching out to Lee and talking about art. Lee brought up the art issue … it makes us wonder why the prison has not noticed his art going out in the past as he states he sometimes sells it to make money,” Eric Gein wrote in an email. “Maybe (the prison) did notice, maybe they have known all along that Lee was sending out artwork. I mean, wouldn’t they have to know this? They do have a mailroom and mailroom officers right?”
Eric Gein, 42, went on to write that he and his wife send “care packages” to inmates but do not solicit items from them.
Angola records, however, show that Jessika Gein, 29, has wired a total of $700 to at least six convicted killers since January 2010 through JPay.com, an inmate services website.
Eric Gein, of Jacksonville, Fla., also said Monday that “Gein” is not his and his wife’s real last name.
The couple, Gein said, use the surname as an homage to 1950s killer and grave robber Ed Gein.
Gein also said that business on their website has been brisk since they posted Lee’s artwork two weeks ago.
The drawing of the swans sold for $75 in one day and it is now listed for sale on another website for $200, Eric Gein said.
Lee’s letter, which was removed from the website for unexplained reasons last week, was listed for sale again Monday at an increased price.
“The drawings and letter are now famous,” Eric Gein wrote in another email. “We have also seen a considerable increase in both traffic and sales today from around the Baton Rouge area.”
Lee’s continued fame is a sore spot for Lynne Marino, the mother of murder victim Pam Kinamore, one of five south Louisiana women authorities say Lee killed.
Lee, 43, was sentenced to death in 2004 for first-degree murder of Baton Rouge resident Charlotte Murray Pace. He is also serving a life sentence for the murder of Geralyn DeSoto, 21, of Addis.
In a phone interview Monday, Marino wondered why Lee hasn’t yet been put to death.
“He’s been linked by DNA to seven different women,” she said. “There’s no reason the appeal process should take 20 to 25 years before someone is put to death when you have DNA evidence. He’s smart as a fox. I hope he doesn’t outfox the judicial system. That’s what worries me.”
At least one state official says she is determined to make sure Lee doesn’t profit from his fame while he waits to be executed.
State Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, said Monday that she is drafting legislation that would prevent serial killers from profiting from their name recognition.
Dorsey-Colomb is married to Sterling Colomb Sr., the father of Trineisha Dené Colomb, a 23-year-old Lafayette woman Lee is accused of slaying in 2002.
“I don’t want Lee or any other serial killer to have any income whatsoever from any source,” Dorsey-Colomb said. “You shouldn’t be able to kill people and then make money.”